Debussy, Wolpe and Dialectical Form

Abstract

This article is a survey of the emergence of dialectical form from principles of Baroque rhetoric through Hegelian dialectics to twentieth-century music. The appearance of the Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni is examined as a prototype of dialectical form. Debussy's Des pas sur la neige is graphed in detail to discover the interactions of the diatonic, whole tone and octatonic collections. Wolpe's Form for Piano is likewise analyzed in depth for its hexachordal and symbolic processes. Four dialectical tropes are identified in Form: Emergence, Interpenetration, Transformation and Symmetry. The article concludes that Debussy and Wolpe shared a common understanding of musical form, as well as a kinship relation as far as musical imagery is concerned.

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